Dispensing containers are know for holding viscous liquid condiments, such as ketchup, mustard, honey and other viscous liquids. Such containers typically have a base for supporting the container and some type of opening or valve at the opposite end of the base for dispensing the liquid material from an inner cavity of the container. Either the valve is closed or a cap is installed on the container during period when the container is not being used.
In most containers, the viscous liquid materials contained therein tend to gravitate toward the base, which is at the opposite end of the opening of the container. With such containers, when the container is completely filled, material in the container may be easily dispensed through the opening at the top end of the container. However, when the container approaches being empty, it is difficult to dispense viscous liquid materials which are seated at the base of the contained opposite the container's opening. Thus, the user must vigorously shake or hit the container to empty all of its contents. And, in practice, since it is difficult to remove all of the container's contents, some of the contents remain in the container when it is either disposed of or recycled.
A number of inventions have sought to solve the problem of removing substantially all of the viscous liquid contents from a container. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,687, which issued to Fitten et al. on Aug. 12, 1997, discloses a base end dispensing container with a travel cap. The Fitten invention is specifically directed to a container that is useful for flowable materials, such as bath products, shampoos, conditioners and liquid soaps. However, since this patent does not concern human consumable liquids, it does not consider the problems associated with contamination of the container's contents through the base end dispensing valve. In addition, the Fitten invention utilizes a removable cap, which must be affixed on top of the base end dispensing valve to positively seal the container to avoid the inadvertent dispensing of its contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,123,606, which issued to Latocha on Jul. 12, 1938, also discloses a base end dispensing device. This device includes an operating valve, which is located at the top of container, opposite a base end dispensing valve. However, this valve uses a rather complex spring-operated mechanism and vertical movement in order to dispense an amount of the container's contents. Thus, the Latocha invention is rather expensive to produce. In addition, the Latocha container is made of a non-deformable material such as glass or the like. Furthermore, the Latocha device is especially configured to hold and dispense granular solid materials, such as sugar and is not especially suitable for the dispensing of viscous liquids.
Accordingly, what is needed is a base end dispensing container, suitable for dispensing viscous liquid consumable products, such as ketchup, mustard, honey and the like, that elevates the dispensing valve from the area of the base end upon which the container rests to prevent contamination of the contents of the container and which includes a rotationally operable valve, which is operated from the top end of the container, remote from the base end dispensing valve, and which positively seals the dispensing valve without dispensing any more of the container's contents than is precisely desired.